(If you see any random 'em's, it's because I messed up this chapter by trying to fix some things later on and severely screwing up the replacement.)
That morning, everyone was up and moving. They were on their feet, traveling in uncertainty along the dewy ground. The trees shielding them from the harsh sunlight that crept in through any openings in the foliage high above their heads.
Critters were especially buzzing today, scampering across the forest floor and flying amongst the trees. It was a beautiful sight to behold, as if Spring had come around once again.
"How pretty~" Patty goggled at all the sights and sounds wearing the usual bubbly, distracted look on her face. "I wish I could fly like the dragonflies."
"We've already spotted quite a few big ones." Liz sighed. Although the actual situation was bleak, that didn't stop Liz from feeling the life around her. "I hope you don't fly like them. That would be troublesome. You'd fly away from me, and I can't have that."
"If I have wings, you have wings." Patty giggled to her sister. "Lighten up. We can fly together."
"Come on, now." Maka turned back to the girls. "Let's enjoy this pretty day. It's been a while since I've seen how nice this can all be."
Blackstar nodded in agreement. "At least the sun is nice and bright."
Soul exhaled. It seemed life was starting over with all the dinosaurs and stuff. Luckily they hadn't run into any deadly predators for a while. Maybe things were finally coming to an end? Of course not! If things were coming to an end, there would be no story to make of this!
Death the Kid walked quietly next to Amber, who wore a similar expression to Patty's. Keira was next to Soul, and Akiri and Dinya were next to Maka. Dinya had started to let go of it after Alyssa's demise. She was getting better, without a doubt, but still seemed so depressed.
Kid enjoyed the sights and sounds. He really did. It was just... so hard to relax with everything that had happened. Last night and the evening before, he relaxed plenty when staring up at the millions of stars visible that night. He could only relax after having been attacked and violently killing the attacker! It wasn't the best thing to rest on, but he made it through with ease. Surprising ease, for that matter.
Amber observed the world around her with such a gleeful concentration that it instantly caught Kid's eye. He liked that she was so in tune to this prehistoric age and that sooner or later, she would definitely come in handy for more important matters.
Kid also liked how Patty was happy, and carefree. He was usually cheered up by this sight, but these days he's seen it so often that her playfulness would need a boost or two before effecting him. Watching Maka up in front with Soul made him feel a bit empty. Sure Dinya and Keira were right behind her, but Maka and Soul were still with each other. Blackstar's missing his partner, but he has still found comfort in fooling around with Patty or chilling out like Soul... Kid thought. Maka's been with Akiri a lot and Dinya. Maka's still talking with Soul and the pair seemed to be growing closer in a way Kid couldn't understand at that time. Even though they could act so distant... the two seemed... so close.
And that narrowed the loneliness down to four people. Kid, Liz, Amber, and Keira. They were the only ones who didn't constantly have a partner. Even if Liz had Patty, Patty wasn't one who would just sit around and talk like Liz. Patty's too hyper. Amber revolved from person to person, not really having a specific go-to but rather simply hanging about and waiting for the right time to pop in and be part of things. Keira was naturally trying to avoid gaining any strong relationships with the others, and things seemed to be working out for her. But there was something about the way Keira had asked Kid the other night those random questions, and something about the way she avoided certain people more often, that gave him the idea that she wasn't unfeeling and heartless. Keira was growing close to some of them, and tried especially to avoid those people.
And then there was Kid. He talked to others the least in the formed group. Sure, he chatted with Liz once in a while. Sometimes Keira. In fact, he had talked to Keira more than Liz in the past few days! It was nothing intentional. Liz had been with Patty very often and in some cases, tried to avoid others and be alone. Liz had also spent lots of time with Soul. The two got each other well, and could relate to some things. Things like being popular (because both of them are very attractive and cool) and music and etc. But they also shared some deeper feeling. Not feelings of love. But similarities such as being thrown out of a social group, in a way. Not wanting to end where they started off. They shared things like that, that made things easier to talk about with one another.
Kid could relate. Perhaps more than Soul. But whenever he tried to think of ways to do so, his mind flashed back to when he first met the Thompson sisters. The condition they were in. How much Liz seemed to dislike him. He couldn't compare. He emwouldn't/em dare. He also didn't want to hear the cliché em"I know how you feel"- "You don't know how I feel".
He didn't even notice that he had been smiling at Maka and Soul's closeness. Liz noticed, and raised an eyebrow, snapping her meister out of whatever daze he was in. "Kid!" the older blonde waved her hand in front of Kid's face and he startled back. Amber and Patty giggled as they watched him do this. "What are you smiling about?"
"Oh..." he sighed, still smiling. "I was just thinking about things."
"... Happy things?"
"You could say that. I guess so." he answered with a shrug. Liz got back to walking. She smiled herself, looking back at everyone. They all seemed somewhat happy today.
As they walked along, the day grew very, very hot. Blackstar even took off his shirt because he was so hot. Soul decided to just wear his T-shirt, taking off his jacket.
"I'm too hot!" Maka complained, swiping sweat from her forehead. "If the boys weren't here, I'd take my shirt off."
"Why would you worry if we're here or not?" Soul smirked "There's nothing there to see, anyways."
"Soul!" she growled. "Maka-Chop!" Maka chopped Soul right on the head, and the two laughed loudly. Everyone did. Although Kid laughed less than the others for multiple reasons. The biggest being that his throat hurt from yesterday. Keira didn't laugh at all, because that's simply out of character for her.
Amber chuckled "Oh~ I know some people who'd be willing to take their shirts off in from of you."
"What about you?" Soul asked. "I'll take mine off if you take yours."
"Cut that out, Soul!" Maka put her weapon in a neck-lock and he stopped his jokes.
They had walked out into another more opened area of short grasslands painted with shimmering blades of green and brown. A few flying prehistoric bird creatures flew in the distant sky. Some non-deadly prehistoric creatures roamed the distant grasslands as well. There were parts of the forest that ended and spread out for miles and miles like this one, and then there was such dense areas of forest that the forest floor was dark and filled with predators big and small, and life in general.
Akiri made some sort of crying noise when she looked ahead and pointed out her hand. By this point, everyone, even Keira, wasn't paying much attention to the things around them. "What is it?" Dinya asked quietly.
Keira saw what Akiri was pointing at, and stepped forward a few steps to be next to the older Japanese girl. "I see." Soul and Blackstar were up front in seconds, Liz and Patty right behind them. Maka joined Akiri, Keira, and Dinya. Kid and Amber walked over to one side, peeking out behind the others.
"Dinya raised her machine gun. "Are you friends, or foes?"
The person dressed in armor immediately took off his helmet. He was around Amber's height, but a little taller. His hair was red, and he had ginger bangs that reached just past his eyebrows. He stepped up to the others, Dinya lowering her weapon. His eyes were a light hazel. Not the hazel Kid had seen in his dream, but a more yellowish of that sort. He was covered with reddish, brownish freckles. The kid held out his armored hand, and dropped the helmet completely. "I'm one of you." He stated firmly. His voice sounded cheerful. "I'm only wearing this armor to keep from their clutches."
"Makes sense." Liz exhaled in relief. "I thought you were coming to kill us or something. Are you alone?"
"... No." he answered...em carefully. "My friends are a bit further out into the grass. I'll grab them and bring them here, or I can take you all to them."
"Bring them here." Keira instructed, keeping her usual suspicion. "It's difficult to trust any humans in armor these days. No matter who they say they are."
"What's your name?" Patty asked with a giggle.
The ginger answered "I'm Samuel Ackart. Call me Sam." And with that, he was off to get his friends.
"What do you think about this?" Blackstar asked.
"Good." Dinya smiled softly. At least they'd be increasing their numbers.
"I'm good with it." Akiri agreed.
"I'm not sure yet." Keira spoke in monotone "If they become valuable players, I'm fine with it. But for now, I'm keeping on edge with this."
"I don't know." Maka admitted, and then she shrugged saying "I guess at this point, it doesn't hurt to try things out."
Soul laughed and said "I don't care. As long as they're cool, I'm cool."
Patty giggled and answered "He's a ginger! He's a ginger!" That wasn't much of an answer, but no one seemed bothered by this.
Amber's eyes brightened up like the sun and she replied with "He seems okay. We'll see."
Liz answered, unmoved, "I don't care. He seemed all right."
Kid stepped out into the open grass away from the others and said "Like Keira and Maka, I'm not sure about this just yet. If this kid isn't bad, we might as well increase our numbers like Dinya would say. I didn't exactly make my existence aware, in this case. I was hidden behind you guys with Amber."
"That's okay." Liz assured. "He'll be back soon enough. See. He's already disappeared over the horizon and-"
"Yes. This is true." Kid interrupted. "That doesn't matter. What if...What if..."
They all knew what he was getting at. Even Patty understood. "That doesn't matter." Blackstar stepped over to Kid and placed a hand on the shinigami's shoulder. "If they're against shinigami, they don't need to join our group. If they're with it, they're with us. Don't stress about it, got it, Kid? There is nothing to worry about."
"Kid nodded and smiled at the blue haired ninja. Although something in the back of his mind denied Blackstar's comment and said "There isn't nothing I should be worried about."
Sam arrived shortly after with two other people at his side. One of them was a tall Mexican boy with black hair. He had dark skin and eyes. This Hispanic wasn't wearing armor like Sam, but a red short-sleeved shirt and dirty baggy pants with big brown sneakers.
"My name's Fernandez Gomez. Call me Nando, because it sounds cool." the Mexican boy introduced himself more clearly. "I'm fifteen. Need any more information?"
"Don't use that tone of voice with me." Maka snapped. "Go on. What's going on here? The other two need to explain themselves clearly and so do you."
The other one aside from Sam she was referring to was a short, dark brown haired, tanned skinned, amber eyed fellow with a childish face who seemed to be very young. He wore no armor. His clothes looked much like Nando's. "I'm Oliver." he stated in a high, prepubescent voice.
"Oliver Twist?" Soul asked jokingly. Oliver's face grew a bright red liked he was going to blow his top and he said harshly "No. My name is Oliver Arnold. Got a problem with that?"
"Tough..." Blackstar mumbled. Oliver shot a threatening glare at the ninja, even though this didn't bug Blackstar in the slightest. In fact, the ninja found it amusing.
Oliver continued with "I'm thirteen and-"
"Thirteen!" Liz hadn't meant to say it so loudly, but everyone was surprised. The kid was barely taller than four feet! And his face was of an eight year old! "Oh. Sorry."
"God!" Oliver was angry now. Nando placed his hand on Oliver's shoulder to calm down the hot-headed baby-face.
"God is right!" Samuel exclaimed humorously, taking notice of Kid standing over to the side.
Kid looked at the three newcomers in surprise. "Oh! It seems you've noticed." he laughed. Although his laugh didn't come out very naturally. He was unnaturally nervous considering how he usually would have acted. "My name is Death the Kid. Yes. I am the son of Lord Death." That introduction was unnecessary since the striped and eyes said it all, but it felt right to say it anyways. It also gave Kid more comfort in this stressful period to be able to repeat his name without the threat of being shot or worse, since these boys had no weapons from the looks of things.
"How come we didn't see you before?" Sam asked, eyes widening.
Kid laughed softly and answered smoothly "I can teleport. One minute I'm there, and the next... Poof! I'm gone."
"Liz laughed at Kid's lack of seriousness. At least he's finding ways to take things lightly. Liz thought gladly.
There was a short introduction and everyone was set to finding a safer place to rest as the sun dipped down. They made a small clearing in the grass and all laid down in a circle, talking quietly. They had no fire. They had no water. But they had some berries, and there was enough to share. Even if each person only got so much.
"Turns out Sam was fourteen. Just a year older than Dinya.
"They fell asleep that night without much explaining. They hadn't explained much about what had happened yet, so they slept in mystery of one another. The sun had set too early and they needed some time to get things through to each other.
Kid dreamed darkly that night. Nothing good came to mind... That, and it was like the other dream he had recently. Only in this dream, the voice that called out to him was more panicked. Why? Kid didn't know. He wanted to wake up from the dead body of Alyssa and murderous strangle of Blackstar, but he simply couldn't. He tried. And he failed.
At least there were more people to support one another in these hard times.
Sometimes it's best to have a friend to lean on rather than a road to walk on.